Top 4 Metrics for Manufacturing Business Intelligence Dashboards

March 5, 2015

Efficient manufacturers understand that having all your information in one place is more convenient than pulling the same information from various sources. Thus, we have dashboards: a place to view all your necessary metrics in a single window, rather than separate reports.

Despite the fact that the concept is well-known and easy to understand, most organizations still fail to implement and execute metric strategies.

Within the manufacturing industry, monitoring key processes leads to operational efficiency and quality control. With an ERP solution in place, these separate reports can be consolidated and customized in dashboards.

While each manufacturer has its own unique formula of useful metrics, some critical metrics for manufacturing business intelligence are used in nearly every organization:

1. Machine Utilization. Nearly every manufacturer uses machines while striving to minimize the costs of using them. Tracking machine utilization per single machine, and then aggregated over numerous related machines can help lead manufacturers to greater profitability.

2. Scrap or Reject Rate. To minimize costs and control quality, manufacturers should track how much product is poorly produced. This overall metric can help identify when a problem exists somewhere in the production process.

3. Labor Hours per Production Unit. With experience and refinement, the labor hours needed to produce each unit of product should go down over time. Whether measuring in unit count or dollar volume, the key to efficient manufacturing is ensuring that this metric remains optimal.

4. Production Days of Raw Materials On Hand. To keep costs down, management needs to minimize the inventory of raw materials, while still maintaining enough for production and safety stock. Using historical measurements, organizations can identify their optimal inventory levels for raw materials needed.